


You Will Be Home

by zanatte



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, Grantaire-centric, M/M, POV Grantaire (Les Misérables), but he has worked on it and is in an overall good place, grantaire is loved, i really said this man will be SO loved, i'll make sure of it, mentioned past eating disorder/depression/other mental health concers, this is just fluff btw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 09:01:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29573592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zanatte/pseuds/zanatte
Summary: The college is closing in two weeks and Grantaire doesn't know what to do.Found family fluff
Relationships: Grantaire & Les Amis de l'ABC, Les Amis de l'ABC Friendship
Kudos: 5





	1. (he needs to lay down)

**Author's Note:**

> found family is my favorite trope :)  
> grantaire deserves to be loved and guess what?  
> he is :)

It’s two week before finals when the college announces that it will not be staying open during the winter break. The email causes chaos five minutes after it’s been sent to the student body. 

Grantaire feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, and pulls it out to a flood of notifications, but the vibrations came from the ABC group chat, set in a priority profile.

“ **From angevengeur** : Meeting tonight at eight.”

Grantaire’s been in the studio for hours now, but if Enjolras is calling a meeting on a Monday night something must have happened. He checks his browser feed for news but it’s the usual stuff, economics and petty drama. After checking his twitter as well (not that he’s on  _ politics  _ twitter, but the trending topics tend to keep him up to date on that kind of thing), he still can’t find anything, aside from two k-pop idols announcing their new songs. If the cause for the meeting hasn’t made national news, then it must be something the school has come up.  _ Great,  _ Grantaire thinks,  _ hope the board is not cutting more from the art budget. _

He checks his school email and there it is, the damned notice.

He almost drops his phone into the turpentine, and that’s what shakes him. Grantaire lets a shaky laugh, because he  _ can’t believe they did this. _ He stares a second longer into his painting, trying to make sense of anything, but his brain comes blank. He mechanically cleans up his easel and station, since he knows he won’t be able to work like this ( _ he needs to lay down _ ), more muscle memory than conscious motion; he has treated studio protocol better than his health in the past. 

When he’s done, he grabs his messenger bag and walks out. He’s lucky that he doesn’t have classes on Wednesdays, so he heads towards the dorm. Once he’s in his room, he leans against the door, slowly sliding to the floor. 

_ Fuck. I can’t believe they’re doing this.  _

After pulling his earphones from the bag and starting some music, he re-reads the email with a slightly calmer mind. And then he reads it one last time, before starting to run numbers on his head. He already suspects he won’t be able to afford the school’s board and room rates, but he has to be sure. He checks his bank account on his phone and his heart sinks.  _ I hope this works,  _ he wishes as he submits his exemption request to the Student Life Office. He’s not very optimistic about it, but he’s trying to keep himself from spiraling. Even with his working all twenty hours a week (all he can do as an international student) for the rest of the semester, he wouldn’t be able to afford both the room  _ and _ food for the extra long break. A part of him (the part of him that wants him to drink until he can’t feel anything tonight) whispers that two and a half months of hunger will surely make him a better person. He shakes his head, he’s  _ fine, he’s enough, he’s here.  _ It has been hell, recovering from a multitude of  _ bad habits _ , but he has made some fine progress and is not about to let this make him relapse. 

There’s nothing else he can do now, so he tries to relax. 

The buzz from his phone takes him from his zoning out.

**Les Amis de l’ABC**

18:56

**angevengeur:** Reminder that there’s a meeting in an hour.

19:55

**angevengeur:** Starting in five more minutes.

  
The time at the top of his screen reads an angry 20:23. He had dissociated for hours.  _ Fuck. _ Grantaire knew that it would take him at least five minutes to cross the campus to their meeting place. He was low on spoons,  _ i’ll freak out if i have to do a peoples right now. _ He shot a quick text to Courfeyrac asking him to text him the minutes of the meeting. He’d try to read them in the morning. He didn’t have anything too pressing so he could afford to have a night in.


	2. Damage Control

His alarm goes off at 8:30, so he takes a quick shower and heads for the cafeteria. While chewing his fruit loops, he ruminates his options for the break. Checking his email was the first thing he did in the morning and unsurprisingly, there’s no response from Student Life yet. But he had expected that. He texts Floreal, asking her if there are any more shifts he could work, but he doesn’t expect much in that front. The community cafe is a small thing, and most of the time it doesn’t need a huge amount of personnel to operate smoothly. The other option… He would rather not try that, but Grantaire is smart enough to know that it’s his best bet.

He texts the groupchat.

**college counseling waiting room**

9:15

**strugglingRtist:** me dears, sos, binge drinking tonight at yours?

**littlemusic:** oh? waht’s the ocasion?

**jollybean:** is this about winter break?

**strugglingRtist:** listen i have a class in ten and don’t want to have a panic attack, can we not discuss it over text

10:03

**boss of uets:** ooooo drinking on a school night im so in

**jollybean:** of course you are 

**littlemusic:** im going grocery shopping

  
  


Grantaire makes a point of not checking his phone during class, but the vibrations comfort him a little bit when they go off.

They get drunk when he gets back from classes. He cries a little on Musichetta’s shoulder(he’s getting better at being vulnerable), and Bossuet curses the administration with language so colorful that Grantaire is soon laughing crying, snorting through his snot. Grantaire, because he has actually become some sort of adult in the last year, is pacing himself, and the others stay on the tipsy side, since it is a school night. 

After the pity party, they sit down to plan, and Grantaire checks the minutes Courf sent him, and he shouldn’t be surprised, after all the Friends of the ABC  _ is _ an activist group; but it is still amazing how much they have been able to organize already, while the rest of the student body is still reeling from the news. The minutes have mostly a plan of action, while there are already several emails in Grantaire’s inbox with some of the things the Friends have set up. There is a mutual aid form and a spreadsheet for outside people that would be willing to host students, as well as comprehensive guides for navigating the exemption forms and other financial aid stuff. The thing is...

The thing is.

Grantaire has never been good at asking for help. Company, yes, of course, he loves to be miserable with an audience but help? That requires a sort of confidence, enough trust in the human heart to uncover his fragile spots, and he doesn’t. So while a well balanced student might already be inquiring among friends who could house them, Grantaire is making a list of things he would need in preparation for a month of being homeless.

  
He can’t help it, but at least now he’s able to recognize it and try to veer it towards a better path. He might ask friends,  _ but  _ only after exhausting all other options. 


	3. (Well, fuck me)

For the next two days, Grantaire goes on with his life as if nothing had happened. The administration is shit as always, and they’re taking their sweet time processing exemption applications, which Grantaire thinks is pretty rude considering they dropped that turd on the students’ laps with very little time to prepare.

Then, that morning, he woke up and checked his email and again, his life was thrown askew by a bunch of ones and zeros in a server miles away. The subject of the email was just  **Winter Break Exemption Forms** and Grantaire thought that was an unnecessary delay for the final blow.

He put off opening the message, going through the rest of his inbox first and finishing the process of waking up. As he filled a glass of water he finally gathered the courage to tap on it. 

_ Hello Everyone, _

_ As per our last email, the college cannot accommodate the same number of students as in previous years, however, we understand that there are some extenuating circumstances for certain cases, and thus we sent a form for you to explain these and be considered for an exception.  _

_ It is unfortunate that we have to inform you that we can’t offer you room and board for this winter break, but a discounted charge is available for this unexpected situation. We would like you to consider that the college will have few if any job opportunities during the break, so please factor that into your plans and let us know your decision by the end of this week. _

_ We encourage you to ask friends and family if they can house you. _

_ We wish you the best, _

_ Student Life _

What a joke. 

So that left him with the few extra shifts that Floreal had managed to squeeze in his schedule, but there was no way his account would be able to survive two months of housing  _ and _ groceries without an active income source. 

_ We encourage you to ask friends and family if they can house you. _

_ (Well, fuck me). _ Grantaire knew he should, and as soon as possible, but the fear of being a burden persisted through therapy like a stain bleeding through fabric layers. Still, the fact was that he would have to suck it up and ask, but how? He knew Joly couldn’t, since he was already bringing both Musichetta and Bossuet home. Eponine, while she had already offered her apartment, she also had both Gav and Azelma to take care of, and Grantaire didn’t want to put her in a bad spot, especially since he wouldn’t be able to work. So that barred his closest friends, which meant the next in line were the Friends. 

Grantaire rested his forehead on the counter and took a deep breath. He could do it. It would be better than the streets, and he just had to ask.  _ He could do it. _ He opened the unofficial group chat with growing dread. 

**abc fwends**

9:28

**strugglingRtist:** hey guys my exemption form for the break got rejected

**strugglingRtist:** can i stay with any of u? im lowkey homeless

He closed the app and made his way to his morning class, constantly checking for new messages. Lunchtime came without a response, although Grantaire knew several people had read his texts, which didn’t help his anxiety. By the end of lunch, he was practically vibrating from nervous energy. He had seen the texting bubble appear and disappear, and was trying to not let it get to him. 

It wasn’t going great.

***

Grantaire got home just before dinner, slightly more relaxed after a long painting session. He had made himself stay away from his phone for the duration of it, since it was not helping. Still, as soon as he dropped his keys at the kitchen table he fished his pockets for his phone. As he took off his jacket he powered up the phone and felt it ping on quick succession as the notifications came flooding in.

He scrolled down from where his last read message was, his heart sinking. Most of the Friends were already hosting someone else, or their living situations were not amenable. As he reached the bottom of the groupchat Grantaire groaned, realizing he had two options: Marius and Enjolras.


End file.
